I am not Draco Malfoy
by DarkRose2009
Summary: Young Scorpius' trying very hard to prove to Rose and the school that he's not his Father, Draco Malfoy. But why? Read and find out, R&R too, thanks.
1. Being called Malfoy

Disclaimer : I don't own the characters, only the plot's mine, enjoy.

Scorpius was taking the time to ready himself for school in his parents' Manor. He was looking at his blond hair and pale face. Although he was his Father's spitting image, he would like others to think of him as someone separate. He knew others saw him as Draco Malfoy because he heard someone call him "Malfoy" at one Summer party hosted by the Zabinis and it annoyed him to no end. He remembered said party quite too well, some people were saying this about him :

_"Did you see him, the Malfoy boy, just like his Father, Draco Malfoy."_

_"Yeah, pale, blond and cold silver eyes."_

_"Yes, so a Malfoy from top to bottom, why he even has Draco's boastfulness."_

_"Well, you know what they say, eh : like Father, like son."_

_"And like Mother, like daughter."_

And this was why he was repeating to himself, again, again, again, again and again, after the party was over :

"I am not my Father, I am not Draco Malfoy, I am Scorpius Malfoy."

"You're right, Dear, you are yourself. So are you all ready?" said Astoria, coming in his room.

"Yes, just a little scared to meet my Father's enemies, Mother."

"You know sometimes, we must let go of our past differences and start anew. And besides, I think your Father has forgiven his old enemies, because they saved his life, more than twice."

"But, I don't think they are going to forgive us." He said sadly.

"You worry too much about it, child. Now hurry up, it's time for Hogwarts' express now."

"Yes Mother. I really wish I didn't have to go to Hogwarts, why can't I go to Durmstrang or some other wizarding school?"

"Because it's nearest our home, dear, give it a chance, maybe your Father's enemies have changed, who knows."

"Mother, you're always so positive."

"Are you coming or not, Astoria, Scorpius?"

"Yes, Father."

The day he got on platform 9 and 3/4, he spotted a red-haired girl with such a beautiful, flamboyant shade of red in her hair. He wanted to go to her then, but his Father stopped him :

"Don't, she's going to nasty to you, Scorpius, she's _the_ Rose Granger Weasley, my school enemy's daughter. Plus, she's a half-blood."

"Maybe they've forgiven us, after such a long time, Draco? And half-blood? I can't believe you'd say that in public still, 10 years after the war." Astoria intervened, not wanting her son to perpetuate the feud between the Malfoy and the Weasley families. His Mother, unlike his grandmother Narcissa Malfoy, wasn't the typical Malfoy wife, she was an outspoken and free-spirited lady, not believing in the Pure-blood ideology, although she was still somewhat aristocratic.

And so he waited until his parents were gone to introduce himself to the Weasley girl, he thought she didn't mind him being a Malfoy, though boy he was wrong about it :

"Hi, I am Scorpius Malfoy and you?"

"Oh, Malfoy, isn't it? Well, I've heard lots of bad things about you, like how evil you are and everything." She said it so plainly that it got to him.

"Look Weasley, can't we be nice to each other? Can't we be friends?"

"Be friends with you? In your dreams, Malfoy. You are my enemy, nothing else and you'd do well to remember that in school."

After he was branded as "Malfoy", in her mind, it was Headmistress Mcgonagall's welcome speech and while she was speeching, he was thinking about which house he was going to be sorted in and wondered about which house Rose was going to be in. When it was his turn to put on the Sorting Hat, it shouted :

"Slytherin!"

He then went to the Slytherin table, his Housemates congratulating him and all, but he heard Rose being sorted into Gryffindor. He didn't know history was repeating itself again.

And to be sure, in school she never was nice to him, even though he didn't understand why. "Why, the war's been over for more than 10 years, and the Weasleys are still holding it against me and my family for it. I guess my Father must have done some unspeakable things to them, for her to be this way towards me."

Some nights, he was following her around, because he was curious to know why she was always this mean towards him, he caught her in deep discussion with her Weasley year old cousins, Dominique, Roxanne, Lucy, Victoire and Molly, about him :

"I think you're too mean to Malfoy, I mean, he hasn't done anything to you personally." Dominique was trying to dissuade her from being so horrible to him.

"But he's still our family's enemy, so my enemy too. I mustn't get too friendly with him, you were there when my dad said this or they'd disown me if I were."

"I think it's silly to carry on the family feud into the next generation, our parents fought and won the war because they wanted us to be free to make our own choices, I'm sure your mum won't approve of you being so horrible to Malfoy. And you know what, about your dad, Rose, I think it's just an empty threat." Her Weasley cousin Roxanne was reasoning with her.

"I know, I _know_, Roxie and Dom, but what can I do about it? And it's too late anyways, I've rejected his friendship offer and I'm sure he must hate me for it now." Rose said, with some sort of fatality in her voice. But she couldn't know he Scorpius Malfoy was overhearing this conversation of hers with Dominique, Lucy, Roxanne, Molly and Victoire and and he didn't think it was too late for them to be friends.

"Well, I don't think he does. I don't think it's too late for you to be friends with him. I think he wants another chance from you too and he doesn't understand why you're this way towards him." "_Dominique is so damn intelligent, why isn't she in Ravenclaw?_"

"I don't care, he's still my enemy. Off to sleep now, Dom, Roxie, Lu, Victoire, Molly." said Rose stubbornly.

"Think about it, Rosie. Plus, this year is going to be my last year at Hogwarts, After her older cousin Victoire said this, Molly added :

"Yes. Listen to Victoire, Rose. She and I are tired of seeing our family and theirs to be always fighting. I think it's time to move on, don't you Rose?" Her older cousin Molly was more peace-loving than her. While he was listening to her conversation with her older cousins, he was musing about them : "_Even though Victoire, one year apart and physically different from Molly, they are like sisters and do everything together, and often share the same views on things. And I wish I had cousins like hers too, but Aunt Daphne isn't married yet. Not surprising, considering how selfish and self-loving she is. No man would like a woman like my Aunt. _"

"Even if I could forgive him for being a Malfoy, could dad or granddad forget about what Malfoy's done to him in school and could Uncle Harry? This was quite a valid question coming from his one-sided crush.

"Yes Rose, I think with time, they will see past it." Her older cousins Molly and Victoire both answered.

"_I can use Dominique, Roxanne, Lucy and Molly Weasley to get her friendship. But since Molly will be out of Hogwarts this year, she's not going to be much use for me anyway_. _And Rose is afraid of being friends with me because she's scared of my Father and hers. Well, I'll show her I'm not Draco Malfoy, my father and I really don't want to be her enemy._"

His 1st year passed so quickly, with thrilling Quidditch matches to watch, homework and such that Scorpius had barely a chance to bump into Rose, the girl he liked at first sight. But he did his best to prove he wasn't his Father all year long, and whenever she and others called him "Malfoy", he retorted : "I am not Malfoy." But with time, he got used to being called that and so he didn't get annoyed by it anymore, but somehow it hurt him more when Rose called him by his family name with such spite.

"Well, bye Rose." He waved at her on the train back home. She completely ignored him.


	2. Stop calling me Malfoy

Back in his family's house, his Father, Draco Malfoy was scolding him about wanting to befriend Ronald Weasley's vengeful daughter and he was only half-paying attention to him, only nodding at times.

"Are you listening to me, Scorpius?"

"Yes Father, I am."

"Then repeat what I just said?"

"You said I shouldn't have asked for Rose Weasley's friendship and she's a half-blood, so not worthy of my friendship anyway." He hated it when his Father passed such comments on his little crush, but didn't dare to defend her in front of him.

"Yes, Scorpius, as I was saying, she's beneath you and doesn't deserve your friendship." Although he didn't think this way, he didn't say anything back to his fFther, but his Mother reprimanded severely his Father for this :

"Stop drilling this utter nonsense into my son's mind, the Pure-bloods lost the last war, might I remind you, Draco."

"Astoria, he's my son too and I can discipline him as I wish."

"But I don't want that for _my_ son."

More often than not, he felt sandwiched between his parents when they argued about him; they did that quite often without regards to his feelings and his Father went on and on about it until the day he packed his things for Hogwarts again. While he was boarding the train, he said good-bye to his parents :

"Goodbye, Father, Mother. I'll see you for Christmas."

"Write to us soon, Scorpius."

He thought this year was going to be better with Rose, however it got far worse with her. At the beginning, she didn't even look at him, while he was stealing some glances over at her at lunches, breakfasts and dinners. She was always chatting with her Gryffindor friends and she spent her nights in the library, studying, so he never even got a chance to ask her to be friends again in half a school year.

And then one evening after one of those Quidditch matches, her cousins Albus, James, Louis and Fred all cornered him and bullied him just for fun, like his Father did to theirs in school :

"This is for my dad, _Malfoy_." And then they kicked him hard in his chest. It hurt him but he didn't say anything to them. Rose came a bit later and joined in the fray :

"Malfoy, Malfoy, Malfoy! The big bad Malfoy, I thought I'd never live the day to see you on the ground." They outnumbered him, so he did nothing either, but said to her only :

"Stop calling me_ Malfoy._ I don't like it when you do that, Weasley, I am Scorpius." The boys mimicked him mockingly and she laughed at him with her male cousins, and this broke his heart. This lasted until her now Head Girl cousin Molly came and saved him from his crush and her Potter and Weasley cousins :

"You, boys and you Rose, I thought you were better than this. Stop it now, and detention with me tonight."

"But he's Malfoy, Molly, he—" protested Rose.

"Rose, do you want me to take off points from my own house too? No? Well then, stop it this instant and don't make me do it because I can as a Head Girl."

"Molly, are you seriously going to take points off your own family?" asked her cousin Fred in defiance.

"I will be if you don't stop defending your cousins this minute and you should be ashamed of yourself, Fred, bullying someone younger than you." Her cousin Molly said with authority and this had some effect on her immature 7th year guy cousin.

Without looking at the girl of his dreams, he ran after her cousin Molly who gave them detentions and told her :

"Look, it was my fault, I provoked them first, you shouldn't have given them detentions."

"No, you didn't, Scorpius. I saw everything from my own private spot."

"Well, thank you Weasley?" He said unsure about how he should call her older cousin.

"No need, it's my duty as a Head-Girl, and why don't you call me Molly, like the other younger students do."

In his own bed now, he had a very long troubled night : "_Rose must think this : why did her own cousin Molly defend Malfoy and not me? And she must hate her cousin for this too._" But the girl he liked didn't hold it against her, because she knew how her cousin was as a Head Girl : fair and no favouritism, not even to her family.

Ever since he got Rose Weasley into trouble, she didn't even mock him anymore by calling him _"Malfoy_." He blamed himself for getting her a detention, but his friends Nott and Zabini all thought he was being absurd and told him in turns :

"It's _not_ your fault, you're being ridiculous, her cousins and she provoked you first by calling you '_Malfoy_'. You made it clear to her you didn't like it."

"Thank you guys for being there for me, but I think I need some time alone. And what's it going to take for her to call me Scorpius, not Malfoy? I am my own person, not my father! I am so sick and tired of her calling me 'Malfoy'."

"I say don't try too hard, Scorps, because no matter what you do, she's never going to see you as anything else than a Malfoy, because she's a Weasley." Zabini suggested.

"No, she's not a Weasley, she's Rose!"

"All right, mate, but you're only hurting yourself thinking there's hope for you and her to be friends. You are born enemies, one a Malfoy, and the other a Weasley."

"And one in Slytherin, and the other in Gryffindor." Nott added.

"No, we're not. The Malfoys and the Weasleys _can_ be friends, Nott. And Zabini, who said Gryffindors and Slytherins _must _be enemies?" He was only encouraging himself and he knew his friends were right about this. "_Is there really no hope for us? Why can't we be friends? And why can't I be Scorpius and you Rose, not a Malfoy or a Weasley? Are we really destined or fated to be enemies?" _

After his talk with his friends, he felt slightly better, although still disappointed when Rose avoided him as much as she could the rest of the year and he still thought about the day when she called him "Malfoy" so spitefully, it echoed in his mind from time to time, even some months after she mocked him with her boy cousins.

But soon it was going to be Christmas, and he always dreaded this time of the year, since he had little patience for his Father's lectures about half-bloods, Muggle-borns and other creatures such like Centaurs, Giants, Veelae, Werewolves and etc. Even 10 years after the second war, Draco Malfoy still hasn't changed much about that and was still pretty much a Pure-blood snob, in his eyes. So during the winter holidays at home, he had to suffer all his sermons about Pure-bloods being the best and everything. He himself didn't think Pure-bloods were ever so much better than the Muggle-borns and he detested it when his Father said the word "Mudblood". Then his Mother would chide his Father for using that word in the house, since like him, she didn't like it either.

He hoped Rose was ready to give him a chance at being friends with her once the winter vacations were over, but she wasn't and still ignored him as best as she could when he tempted his luck again at asking her to be friends with him :

"Why Rose? Why can't you be friends with me?"

"Because you're my dad's enemy, okay?" And she ran away from him faster than a rabbit.

"It's still better than her thinking of me as 'Malfoy', though." His spirit was half-crushed and defeated by her continuous refusal to be his friend and ignoring him, although he was quite a determined young boy of 12.

"I agree, Scorps, but you shouldn't take it too much into your heart. You, like the rest of us, have your grades to keep up with. Or else our parents would do you-know-what to us."

"Yes, you're right, Oli. I shouldn't think too much about her, I'd better focus on my schoolwork. But I still dislike it when she does that to me. Does she hate me so much, guys?" He disliked it because he wanted her attention, and since she absolutely refused to give him any, he didn't know what to do to get it.

"Scorps, stop thinking about it. You've been acting like a different person altogether from your Father, even went as far as to defend a younger Muggle-born 1st year against her harasser. If she still can't see your good side, I'd say give up on her and there are plenty of girls who want you."

"But Nott, I don't want any other girls. I want her and only her, she's the only Rose Weasley in the world and she's unique." Nott sighed before saying :

"You're a hopeless romantic, Scorps. And totally not like your Father Draco Malfoy at all. Since it's useless to speak to you now, Zabini and I are going to sleep. 'Night."

"Night guys."

And he followed his friends' advice about concentrating on his schoolwork, this was indeed helping him forget about Rose's ignoring him. Although this meant for him to rival her in school as well, since she was, as he noticed, as motivated as him to be the best in class. And he found her to be an inspiring rival, who drove him to beat her in every test. Now Scorpius brewed a potion perfectly, and a few days later, she answered a question right and earnt 20 points for Gryffindor. And it was this way in school for him until he raced against her in his final exams.


	3. Call me Scorpius, not Malfoy please

He often admired their Gardens in the Summer too and saw so many flowers in bloom. In there, he found a particularly red flower and thought this was Rose's hair, not knowing the girl of his heart hated that colour. If he knew, he would call her hair "red" in retaliation against her calling him "Malfoy". And this Summer, he didn't know why, but his father was quite frequently out of the house, no doubt doing some shady and illegal businesses with some dark wizards. He knew his father loved to be in contact with such dark wizards, and the more illegal the business was, the more he'd do it. And it was useless for Astoria, his mother to tell him to stop, since he, Draco Malfoy, was the Master of the House, and listened to no one.

And so this was one of those rare times, when he was alone with his Mother in the house, and free to think about his problem with Rose.

"Well, how can I make Rose see I am not Malfoy, but Scorpius?" He was asking himself in the Gardens, when his Mother joined him with cold butterbeers.

"Hey son, so you met Rose Weasley, the girl of your dreams?" His Mother was a very intelligent and perceptive woman, not at all like the submissive and trophy Malfoy wives.

"How do you know?"

"You've been talking to yourself about her all summer long, how would I not know about your crush on her?" Astoria answered playfully, but kindly.

"Mother, must you be so candid about it?"

"Well, if you want a quick solution to this, it's best to not beat around the bushes. And I figured, since you wanted her friendship so much, it must mean because you like her, am I not right about it, sweetheart?" She knew his answer already, but asked it anyway.

"Yes, I do like her a bit. Well, yes a bit too much, but anyway, if I'm not friends with her, I won't even have a chance with her and she's adamantly refusing to see me as Scorpius, and she always calls me 'Malfoy', in school."

"What you have to do, son, is to show her we Malfoys have a kinder side too, and this is going to make her see you in a new light. She'll call you 'Scorpius' naturally after that."

"Yes, sounds simple enough, but how? She's such a stubborn and vengeful girl and everything."

"Don't worry, I'll think of something for you son."

"Thanks Mother, you're the best."

"Anything for you, son."

His mother and him talked often about his problem with Rose, although she reassured him she's got a plan in mind, he didn't trust her enough for this and always asked her : "What plan, Mother?" She'd then answer him so cryptically that it hurt his head, so he stopped pestering her about it after a while.

"Scorpius, I'll send you packages and etc during your school year and don't forget about what I said about Rose, don't despair, son." Only his Mother was there to see him off to school this time however, because his Father thought he was big enough to go alone, but his Mother still saw him as a little boy of 13, so that was why she accompanied him to Kings' Cross.

"Bye Mother, I still want to know what you intend to do about Rose?"

"Shush, dear, do you want her to hear it? She's a just few feet away from you."

"Oops, Mother, sorry about that."

"No worries, and like always, write to me."

"Yes I will."

Now in his 3rd year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he wondered what in Salazar's beard did his Mother have in mind for his crush on Rose. He could never have guessed she'd enlist his two best friends' help, Zabini and Nott. And he found them to be quite suspicious as well.

"What have you two been up to?"

"Nothing special, just family matters."

"What family matters?"

"It's private, Scorps. Mind your own business."

"Can't I know? We're best friends, aren't we?"

"But sometimes, some family matters are meant to stay between family, Scorps. How would _you _like it, if I asked you personal things about your family and you didn't want to talk about it?"

"Yes, you're right, guys, I'm sorry, I'm just worried about you two."

"We know, and we're grateful because you're concerned about us." said Nott.

For some while after that particular conversation with them, he had the feeling that his two best mates were planning rather sly something together. "_But what exactly?_" But he had no idea they were scheming about how to get him in Rose's good graces with Astoria Greengrass Malfoy, his dear Mother. And she had made these two swear they would never tell him even if he did nag them constantly about it and he did nag about it. It was unbearable for him to not know what was going on in his 2 friends' minds, until the end of one of his potions classes with the Gryffindors and Rose was daydreaming, looking out of the window, the teacher said :

"Weasley, Malfoy, you're going to be working together on a very difficult potion, and you have 2 months, if you can brew it perfectly, the award will be 100 house points for each." This he saw, yanked Rose Weasley brutally out of her reveries and she protested vehemently against the professor's decision :

"But Sir, _Malfoy_ and I? Why us?"

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy and you, because you are these best potion makers in the whole class. And you'll have 6 months to complete it, since you'll need to gather one ingredient every month, and you'll need 6 of them, all fresh. Read the books to know which ones." said the teacher, flattering them both.

As his teacher was pairing up other students together for this big project ahead, he thought : "_This is my ideal chance with Rose." _But he didn't know his own mother, Mrs. Astoria Greengrass Malfoy asked Zabini and Nott to talk the potions's master into getting him and Rose together in a school project and made the Slytherin boys swear to never tell him even if he nagged them about it.

She left the classroom in a hurry, books, parchments and quills on the floor. He muttered a spell under his breath to help her pick up her things and caught up with her and tried again :

"Look here, Weasley, can't we try to be nice to each other at least?" She didn't even deign him a glance.

But they were forced to work together, so Rose, as unwillingly as she was, was with him in the Room of Requirement once every month. He would have preferred that she willingly worked with him, but one step at a time. "_She will be willing to be with me one day_." He was motivating himself this way and she interrupted his thoughts about her by saying first:

"Malfoy, you'd better not ruin my grades."

"Weasley, trust me, I won't. How about we start working together as a real team?"

"How do you propose we do that?"

"What about being civil to each other for a start?"

"What do you mean by that, Malfoy?" He could feel she didn't trust him at all.

"Oh I don't know, like start by calling each other by our first names?"

"What, how am I supposed to call you 'Scorpius', when you're calling me 'Weasley' all the time?" She asked him seemingly indignantly, but in truth, she was only toying with him.

"I'll call you Rose if that's what you really want. But I want you to call me 'Scorpius' in return for it."

"Fine, so we're on first name basis now?"

"Yes, since we're going to work together for a long while." He said nonchalantly.

"But I'll still call you 'Malfoy', in public, because my Father would disown me for it if he knew I was nice to you."

"Well, I think your Father's a dictator, Rose."

"No, he's not, he's just a bit over-protective of me, that's all." "_Too overly protective._" He thought in his mind.

After he made her agree to call him "Scorpius", when he was alone with her and not "Malfoy', though there were still little frictions between them there and there, there was nothing major until one evening when they were getting the very last ingredient for their almost ready potion, he got into a silly argument with her about her calling him "Malfoy" again :

"I told you to call me Scorpius, Rose. How many times do I have to tell you I don't like it when you call me 'Malfoy'?"

"I think you're over-reacting a bit, why do you not like being called 'Malfoy', you are a 'Malfoy', after all?"

"Thing is, Rose, I really would like you to call me 'Scorpius' all the time, because whenever you're calling me 'Malfoy', it feels for me like you're thinking of me as my father."

"Well, you definitely look like him."

"Yes, I look like him, but I am not him, I am another person altogether, Rose. Why can't you see it for once?"

"All right, you are Scorpius Malfoy, not Draco Malfoy. Now can we finish this potion together, Scorpius not Malfoy, ermm? I want the 100 House points for Gryffindor, don't you want them too for Slytherin?"

"I hope I'm hearing it correctly, you don't hate me for being a Slytherin?"

"No, I just hated you at first because you were a Malfoy and because my dad told me your family was evil and dark and everything. Now I know it's all prejudices and misconceptions and I admit I was wrong in judging you, since I've been working with you fine for such a long time and I must say it had been an eye-opener for me, Scorpius, I didn't know you could be so nice and polite and everything, so I'm sorry for having been so horrible to you. And do tell me something else, please, Scorpius, why did you not try out for the inter-house Quidditch Championship this year?" She asked him curiously and changing the topic all of a sudden.

"Because Father didn't want me to be on the team, he wanted me to focus more on getting good grades instead."

"Oh yes, like mine does too."

"Look Rose, it made my night you haven't called me 'Malfoy', not even once after our stupid argument."

"I just might, _Mal_—"

"Don't you dare, please Rose. You know how I much I hate my family name."

"I was only joking with you, _Scorpius_. Bloody hell, there's no need for you to get so upset about it."

"So, will you consider being friends with me since now you know I am not the big bad and evil untrustworthy Malfoy you thought me to be, Rose?"

"What?! You don't mean you still want us to be friends? Even after all I've done to you?" She asked him incredulously. Amused by her facial expression, he answered her as honestly and genuinely as he could :

"Yes, will you give me this once chance at friendship with you, Rose?"

"Well, I'll think about it, _Scorpius_."

And at last, it was time for him and her to turn in their perfectly brewed potion. His potion master and his friends and fellow housemates were all happy for him to know he got along better with her now, and she was trying hard to grow out of her old habit to call him 'Malfoy', since she got to know him better now.

"_Well, my potion project with her went well, and because of that, I am certainly not her enemy anymore and I even got her to call me 'Scorpius', but I hope one day she'll appreciate me as her friend too so I can have a chance with her as her boyfriend_." He thought as he was watching her with her family after his long train ride.


	4. Did you just call me Scorps?

As his Father was out now more frequently than ever, he spent the majority of his Summer thinking about his Rose. And he suspected his Father was out more often than before he didn't want to get into silly fights with Astoria, his mother. His mother was perhaps way too extraverted and opinionated to be married to a Malfoy. Every Malfoy man, he surmised, liked submissive and quiet women as wives and the young Mrs. Astoria Greengrass Malfoy was nothing like that.

"She's not_ my_ Rose yet. If I tell her she's _my _girl, she'd be upset about it."

"Yes you're right, son. So I've heard she's accepted your friendship last year because you got together with her in a potion project?"

"Well, no, not really. She didn't answer me with certainty, she just said she will think about it. And how-?"

Before she could reply, however, he and his mother saw his Father at the door now and she quickly changed the subject to something else :

"Well, how are your grades, Scorpius? All 'O's as expected and nothing less?"

"Yes, Mother. Father, you're home."

"Yes I am. And Scorpius, you'll have to get all "Os", it's going to be very important for your career in the wizarding world, you're not let any half-blood or mublood surpass you, promise me that?"

"Yes Father, I will get top grades in every test. I won't let them beat me."

"That's my good boy." As he said nothing more to him, Scorpius went to sleep, heart quite heavy, because his Father pressured him to get better grades than anyone else. But he didn't know the real reason why his Father talked this way about Muggle-borns and half-bloods and such the like. He was going to find it out much later in his young life.

"_How am I going to live through my year with such pressure coming from my own father_?" Even in his mind, he didn't call his Father "dad", he called him "father", to show him he respected him as his son on the surface, even though he didn't on the inside. He didn't only think about his grades however, his internal thought alternated between Rose, and the object of his affection and now hopefully friend and his mother, the only other person in the house who always stood up for him, and was there for him always. His Father provided for him materialistically, and his Mother cared for him emotionally, he could feel she loved him more than his Father did because only she hugged him close and such. Although he thought his Father wasn't very fond of him, he didn't understand him well, if he did he would have known it was the only way for his Father to show his care for him, because he was brought up this way by his paternal grandfather, Lucius Malfoy.

"_Time again for Hogwarts' Express and to see Rose and I'm going to see if she really changed her mind about being friends with me or did she agree to be my friend only for our potion project?_" He was way too eager to see her and he found the night before september 1st to be so endlessly long.

Then it was the morning for his train ride to Hogwarts again. There, he saw his precious Rose at the train station, bidding good-bye to her family, not even glancing at him. But on the train, she got in his compartment and was first to speak to him :

"So Scorpius, how was your Summer?"

"As usual, Rose. And what are your cousins going to say about you being with me on the train?"

"Nothing special, they are too busy stuffing themselves with foods from the trolley."

"Merlin, you got money for foods, Rose?"

"If you must know, Uncle George and Harry gave me some to buy candies from the trolley, as Uncle George's now a very successful businessman. My mother works at the Ministry too with your mom, Astoria Greengrass, so that's where my pocket money comes from." She was getting mad as he was asking her about money matters, so he turned the topic into something else :

"What do you want to be, when you're going to be older, Rose?"

"Oh, I don't know, I want to work in the Ministry like my mum or serve as a judge in the Wizengamot."

"You have high ambitions for your future, Rose, I never knew that about you."

"Yes, I do. And before I forget it, I'm so very sorry for ignoring you at the train station."

"Don't be, Rose, I understand, you need to pretend like you hate me to keep up appearances. Well you know what, I do too. And have you thought about my question again in the summer at all? So, what's your answer now about being my friend and all?"

"It's a tricky question, if I said yes, I'd have to hide it from dad, and you'd have to hide it from your dad too." Before she had time to answer his question fully though, Nott and Zabini got in the compartment, finding their friend sitting with his crush of 3 years.

"So Rose Weasley, sitting with a Slytherin and a Malfoy to boot?"

"Yes, at Hogwarts, I am free to sit with whoever I like, Zabini, Nott."

"Aren't you afraid of your dad?" asked Zabini directly. Zabini, Scorpius thought, although a loyal friend, lacked some tact, and Nott was too tactful and it made him quite charming to the Hogwarts female population.

"Well, since we've decided to be friends, we think they should accept our friendship, no matter what." He answered for her.

"Right then, bye guys, see you at school, my cousins are looking for me." She said as she gazed through the compartment's closed doors.

At school, it was eternally the same for him. Rose would be friendly with him in private, but was careful to not be this way towards him in public, scared her father would discover it and disown her like he thought his own Father would do to him if he found out he befriended a half-blood like her. But it was just impossible for him to not fall deeper for her as their friendship developed into some kind of trust, and even complicity. He treasured that trust he worked so hard to get, but he never knew other people helped him with Rose like his Mother, his potions' Master and his 2 best friends he could always count on.

Rose, on the other hand, he noted also appreciated him as a friend, but didn't feel anything romantic towards him. He thought she cared about him merely because he was her friend, nothing more. But he spent already too much time on these thoughts, so he worked extra hard on his lessons, and competed with her in every test, like she did too, to keep up the public appearances. And then it was the Quidditch try-outs again for all students, but unfortunately he didn't make it on the Slytherin team, but _his_ Rose did, and she got to be Seeker on her house's team.

"Scorpius, I made it on the team!" She said to him the night after she passed the try outs.

"That's great for you, Rose. I'm just sad I won't be able to play against you. I haven't made it on my house team." Although he was saying that, he was truly delighted for her, seeing her eyes shining brighter than evening stars.

"How could they be so unfair to you, Scorpius? You're a very talented player. I've watched you play quite often this fall in secret."

"I guess I wasn't good enough, Rose, it doesn't matter to me, though, I'd be interiorly cheering for you every time after your team wins."

"You're really a good friend, Scorps." She called him "Scorps" seemingly inadvertently, but she heard it from his two most trusted friends that his most intimate friends called him that, so to cheer him up, she called him that too and sure enough, it immediately lit up his face.

"What did you just call me?"

"Scorps. I called you Scorps. What? That's your nickname, isn't it? What your friends call you by, yes?"

"Yes, I'm so glad you can call me that now." It was one of the happiest moments of his life : Rose Weasley called him "Scorps" out of her own free will.

"Well, we're friends now Scorps, and friends call each other by their nicknames, no?"

"Thanks so much, Rosie, but only Zabini and Nott call me that, they must have told you about it, right?

"Yes, I've heard it from them. But don't be mad at them, they were honestly trying to help you, Scorps. And did you call me 'Rosie'? It's only reserved for my mum and my favourite cousins : Lily, Lucy, Dominique and Roxanne."

"Are you fine with me calling you that then?" He asked her wishing she'd say yes.

"Yes sure. I am calling you Scorps now, it's only fair you should call me Rosie too. And Scorps?"

"Yeah Rosie?"

"Since we're close friends now, I wanted to ask you something, something, mmm, important for me."

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Does your family still have house-elves?"

"Oh that, yes, we still have them. But now we either pay them in salary, or in rare magical treasures, such like charmed bracelets, necklaces or watches so they can sell them for money."

"Oh really, Scorps? That's great for them!" She exclaimed appreciatively. "_In moral standards, she's more like her mother and mine."_

"Didn't you know about this, Rosie? It was your mother who coerced the Ministry to pass this bill for the House-Elves."

"Good on mum, she doesn't talk that much about her job with me or Hug for that matter."

"A bit like Father then."

"It's been great chatting with you tonight, I hope we can do it more often now as friends." She put the emphasis on the word _friends_.

After she called him "Scorps", he got a warm fuzzy feeling in his stomach and thought sometimes at night : "_Maybe, there's some hope for us. And at last, she saw me as 'Scorpius', not 'Malfoy'." _For the next few months, although he intensified his competition with her in schoolwork, and she still called him "Malfoy" in front of others, he knew it was solely because she was afraid their secret friendship would be discovered soon by other students and her family, namely her cousins Albus and James who bullied him 2 years ago. And so now he wasn't as hurt as before anymore when she called him that because he understood it was just for show.

However, after he celebrated Christmas with his parents at home merrily, he was in for a nasty shock : he found Rose dating someone else : Jonathan Thomas. He first learnt about this Thomas being in a relationship with her when his childhood friend, Alexander Nott, told him about it, after he saw them two kissing in an empty corridor for quite some midnights now.

"Are you sure about it, Nott?"

"Yes, Scorps, I've seen it with my own eyes, they were snogging in the corridors for some nights now."

"_My_ Rosie, with Jonathan Thomas?" This was the first time he experienced jealousy, but he didn't know he was jealous of Jonathan Thomas, all he knew was that he wanted to see Thomas' blood spilled.

"Look, I know you're really angry at them and everything, but, it's only going to hurt your already fragile friendship with Rose if you went ahead and did something rash and reckless to him."

"So, what should I do? Watch them being together happily and everything else?"

"No, we have plan and it's to make Rose see for herself what a cheating scumbag that Thomas is." said Nott this time.

"Yes, he's quite the ladies' man, apparently, and though Rose thinks she's his only one, we're going to make her see him caught on the act."

"That's a brilliant plan, however, how do you know he has cheated on Rose and everything?"

"We've been spying on him for quite a bit, because we didn't like seeing him with Rose, so we discovered some interesting facts about him while in a secret hallway: he snogged a different girl each night and it won't be hard for us to expose him as a cheater to Rose, and she's going to realize how good you are to her."

"Doesn't mean she'll fall into my arms, even with Thomas out of my way. And even if she did like me as much as I like her, I'm not even sure my Father's going to accept my friendship with a half-blood like her, although I said we'd be friends no matter what earlier on the train." He said pessimistically.

"Eventually she will, don't worry, Scorpius."

"And stop throwing cold water on our plan, I'm telling you, everything is going to be perfect."

"Fine and nothing could go wrong with such a classical plan, right, Nott?"

"Yeah, Scorps, that's the spirit."

"Thank you, you two for everything."

"No worries, ever since she became your friend some months ago, she's been like a sister to us."

And so aside from discussing lessons with Rose almost every night in the Room of Requirement they used last year for their potion project, he knew his friends were putting their grand plan into execution. One night, Nott and Zabini burst in the Room of Requirement :

"Sorry to disturb you two love-birds, but we're here on an important mission. Come with us, Rose."

"What are you doing here, Nott and Zabini? And why should I go with you guys and what's this about? And we aren't love-birds, we're just friends helping each other with our lessons."

"Because it's for own good if you came with us and I think you should know this about your boyfriend." He could see Nott was using his Slytherin charms on her and she couldn't resist it.

"Fine, I'll come with you guys, but it better not be anything rule-breaking or else." In this aspect, he thought Rose was quite like her mother, Hermione Granger Weasley and he knew how her mother was in school all because his Father complained so much about her to him and his Mother, still calling her a "Mudblood". But never in a million years, he could think his Father, Draco Malfoy, the one who believed in Pure-Blood supremacy, fell for a Muggle-born in his school years and this was going to help him accept his friendship with Rose Weasley, his true love's biological daughter.

"Good night, Scorps." He indeed had a great night, knowing in the morning, she'd break up with that Jonathan Thomas after seeing him with another girl. "I'll have to thank Nott and Zabini for that later on." In the next few days, however, he didn't expect Rose to be crying for Thomas.

"What's happened, Rosie?" He was there with her, laying on the grass after he did all his homework and got an outstanding for his most recent assignment, but that wasn't as important as Rose's happiness to him.

"That Thomas, cheating scumbag. I thought I was his only one, how stupid I was to think he'd really love only me."

"What did Thomas do to you?"

"Nothing, your friends just showed how much of a flirt he was, and thank you for being there for me, Scorps."

"He's not worthy of you, Rose." He added to comfort her.

"Well, do you think there's ever going to be someone for me out there?"

"I'm sure there is."

"Scorps, thank you so very much for being there. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Come now, Rosie, dry your tears and study hard for your finals and pour yourself into Quidditch, your team needs you and that's how to get over a cheater like Thomas. At last, that's how I coped with it when you refused my friendship for a second time, Rose."

"Good advice, I know I shouldn't waste my tears on him, although I can't help but to be sad about it, not heart-broken of course, but I feel so humiliated."

"I understand Rose, but trust me, everything's going to get better if you just listened to me." And listen to him she did, because she quickly forgot about Jonathan Thomas and studied with more zeal than before and perhaps even more than he did. And it turned out he was tied with Rose for the finals this year, both had "Os" in every subject indeed.

Thanks for reading!


	5. But I want to be your Scorps, Rosie

In his 15th Summer, however, unlike his previous one, his Father was home quite often. His Mother said it was because he realized how undutiful and neglectful he was as a Father and wanted to get to know his son, which meant him, Scorpius Malfoy better, so he didn't have the leisure to think about Rose or to talk about her with his Mother. And mealtimes were generally quite stressful for him. This particular supper, his Father was having a fit about Muggle-borns and Pure-bloods, and his mother was reprimanding him severely like she generally did when Draco Malfoy said that about Muggle-borns. But this time, his Father went a bit too far about it and his Mother too since she wasn't one to step down in an argument so easily.

"Those Mudbloods are all around Hogwarts. I don't really want to see my son socializing with some Muggle-filths or some blood traitors and some half-breeds." His Father was commenting about them around dinner.

"Will you stop that, _please_, Draco? And calling them Mudbloods still? Why you don't face the real reason why you hate them so much, then." Scorpius didn't speak, but he listened with interest and he was abashed his mother would dare to openly provoke him this way. "_The real reason, what real reason? Didn't Father hate the Muggle-borns because their blood was dirty or was there something else?" _But there was indeed something else in Draco Malfoy's unexplained hatred for them. The mysterious reason won't be revealed to him until his last year at Hogwarts however.

"I can call them whatever I want, Astoria, you can't do a thing to stop me."

"Whatever, Draco. Just please don't use that word in front of our son, it won't do him any good to say that around school."

"He's not doing that anyway, Astoria, so put your useless worries away."

"_Oh dear Merlin, when is it going to be over_? _I hope they'd stop arguing soon_." He wasn't listening to them anymore as he retired in his own luxurious room, which belonged to his father when he was a child early this evening. And he was of course, anxious to see Rose again in school when he called her "Rosie", and she called him "Scorps". He really loved it every time she called him that. He knew he was being overly sentimental about this, but he couldn't help it since it took her 3 years to call him by his nickname. And so there he was, wishing to go back to school sooner.

But if Summer passed ever so slowly for him, it still had to be over as all seasons would be and it was going back to school time again. Rose's attitude in public with him hasn't changed, meaning she ignored him totally when she was with her parents and other family. He was quite sad about this since he wished she could be warm to him in public too. "_But this is going to take some time, as her father's really strict about her being friendly with me and everything_." From some distance, he heard Rose say, using the Sonorus Charm :

"Bye, mum, dad, Uncle Harry, Charlie, George, Percy and Bill and Auntie Fleur, Angelina Ginny, Audrey, cousin Fred. I promise to write to you all as soon as I can."

"Bye Rose. We're so proud you've been made a Prefect, dear. Make sure to not get beaten by that Scorpius Malfoy in schoolwork or else. And Hugo, do follow your older sister's example." Ronald Weasley, his Father's old enemy, was saying apparently threateningly to his daughter.

"Ronald, _will_ you stop threatening my daughter and my son? Don't you listen to your dad, darlings, just do your best in school, Rose, Hugo." said her mother, Hermione Granger Weasley kindly to his Rose and her brother.

"Albus, James, look after your girl cousin Rosie for us, please." The great war hero Harry Potter spoke. And when he spoke, his two sons took it as orders, he thought to himself. This also put him on his interior alert button : _"Oh Merlin, I smell trouble with those two in the upcoming year." _

"Yes Father."

"Rose's a grown into quite a big girl and is now in her 5th year and she's a Prefect to boot. She doesn't need any extra protection." Her aunt Ginny Weasley Potter defended her, disagreeing with her husband, the famous boy-who-lived, who his father still had a special hate for. But he thought it was because he was just jealous of Harry Potter's fame, that was all. "_Or else how do I explain Father's irrational hatred for him, even after he saved him_?"

"_Oh Dear Merlin, this year's going to be hell if her cousins and her brother find out about my friendship with her. _"

His worst interior fear about her 2 bodyguard cousins came true in his school year, since Albus and James took their father's words too much to heart and he had to be extremely careful about calling Rose "Rosie" publicly. One random night, these two, along with her little brother Hugo and Louis, her only male Weasley cousin ambushed him while he was going to his dormitory and told him warningly :

"Look, Malfoy, I don't know what you're doing with my cousin, but if you even touch a single one of her hair, you'd get hexed." Albus was saying.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Potter. I'm not doing anything with her. And besides, what proof do you have that I've been doing something with her?"

"I've seen you around with Rose quite often at night so don't think I am blind to this and my father's expressly told my brother James and I to watch out for her." James was just there in a corner, menacingly, not saying a word to him. And the older Potter was quite a bit larger than him physically speaking and he was scaring him a little, even just by standing there, saying nothing to him.

"Malfoy, if you make her cry or do anything the like to my sister." Even though Hugo was her little brother, he was still his male brother, and he just like Albus and James Potter in her regard.

"Listen, Potter, Weasley, I really don't know what you're talking about. And in case you didn't know about it, I am Slytherin's Prefect, so if you threaten me or do anything else to me, I can give you detentions and everything." That was one of the many perks of being a Prefect himself, he didn't have to wait for one to come to his rescue like he did in his younger years.

"Fine, Malfoy. You win. Let's go, Albus, Hugo, Louis." Albus stayed a little more, wanting to do something to him, however her eldest Potter cousin James said again :

"No, don't, Al. He's going to take points off Gryffindor if you do something to him."

But he was unaware Rose, Nott and Zabini were watching him with his bullies also from another secret hallway. So he thought he "ran into" them while he was going to bed.

"Oh Scorps, why didn't you give them detentions? You could have since you're a Prefect."

"I didn't want to hurt you, Rosie. They're your cousins and your little brother."

"Thanks for thinking about me, however you'd have to look after yourself too, Scorps. I won't hold it against you if you were only punishing them in self-defence."

"Thanks very much Rose."

"Hey, you didn't call me 'Rosie', Scorps?" She was almost flirting with him.

"Oh yes, sometimes I do forget about it, sorry, anyway, good night, Rosie."

"Good night, Scorps, Nott, Zabini."

"Only he gets the special treatment from you, Rosie?" asked Nott, who appeared to be mad about it, but he was only joking with her.

"What special treatment?" asked Rose, looking a little confused.

"We have nicknames too. Mine's Lexis and Zabini's Oli for short."

"Oh, all right then. Good night, Lexis, Oli."

After he got the express permission from Rose to punish her cousins in self-defence. Although he ignored the first incidents with them, thinking they'd stop, but he really had to enough of it, so he took matters in his own hands, despite not wanting to, because they got into repeated skirmishes with him on purpose. And since physically, he was no match for them, and if he were to fight them magically, he'd lose points for his house and didn't want to. And this so was one of those occasions where he took points off from Gryffindor :

"20 points each from Gryffindor and 20 points from Ravenclaw : James Sirius Weasley Potter, Albus Severus Weasley Potter, Hugo Granger Weasley and Louis Delacour Weasley for bullying a _Prefect._ You're lucky I'm merciful enough to not give you any detentions, because I can do that too." Only a grunt came from Albus Severus Potter, the more immature out of the two Potter brothers.

Finally he got some peace with them after that. "It's great because I won't have to dodge them while studying for my mid-terms." His mind was on his assignment in the Slytherin Common Room when other students were talking amongst themselves. He thought he heard his name in their lively discussion and promptly asked the students about it:

"Hey guys, are you talking about me?" He asked them casually.

"Yes, we've been meaning to ask you, why didn't try out for the Quidditch team year, Scorps? I remember you're a very skilled player." They didn't hide anything from him and he appreciated that.

"I just love it as one of my favourite hobbies, nothing else. And besides, I must work extra for my studies this year, since it's going to be crucial for my future and professional life in the wizarding world." He spoke quite like an adult now, even though he was still a teenager.

"All right, then you're right to do that I suppose."

He didn't really fully lie to them about wanting to focus more on his studies and he did revise harder this term for his mid-terms as his exam results would be determinant for his future career life in the wizarding world. So he studied with Rose regularly still and he did that ever since she accepted his friendship almost 2 years ago. "That was my most precious day ever in my life." Some days he was practicing some Charms with her, some other days he was duelling with her, using some spells learnt in Defence against the Dark Arts or when he and she got tired, he was just memorizing some theories with her or some History of Magic, to help an agitated Rose sleep better.

"Rose, good luck on your exams." He said when at last his mid-terms came.

"You too, Scorps. I'll be getting my fingers crossed for you."

"Me too. And remember to do your best and you'll get 'O's in everything, I'm sure." He said to boost her self-esteem. Although he was still her competitor in school, he knew it was only friendly rivalry between them and quite the opposite of his first 2 years of one-sided enmity with her.

"Yes Scorps." Rose reluctantly agreed with him, but he noticed her frowns on her forehead.

It was with a warm feeling that he got home for Christmas holidays and he thought he passed every exams with "Os". It wasn't arrogance on his part no, but he was quite confident about his abilities, unlike Rose. "I studied as hard as I could before Christmas, so I'll get good grades for sure." He was never really homesick and didn't want to get back home and everything, but he did it for Astoria, his mother whom he had a special soft spot for.

This Christmas though, he got a very pleasant surprise from his Father. He was like a changed man and didn't make any uncharitable speech about Muggle-borns and everything else. He had to mentally slap himself to know this was really his Father, _the_ Draco Malfoy, supreme believer in the Pure-blood supremacy philosophy. "But _what could have changed him so drastically?" _He didn't really make sense to him anymore, and so burning with curiosity, he asked his father about it :

"Father, may I ask what's gone over to you? What made you change? Why aren't you talking about Muggle-borns and whatnot anymore?"

"Yes you may, son. You probably don't know about it, but I had been working for some months with Bill Weasley and a Muggle-born on a wizard trying to break into Gringott's." It was also the very first time he heard his Father talking about his job.

"And so you decided they weren't so bad after all?" Astoria said smiling.

"Yes, I tolerate them now as the Muggle-born was quite helpful with the case. And the Ministry's quite strict now on anyone saying the word 'Mudblood'. Anyone using the word would be fined, so after quite half a year of giving my hard-earned gold to the Ministry, it beat me out of it."

"Nice to know, Father. I'm so happy you've changed."

"You thought I would never?"

"Yeah, I thought you'd never change and so rapidly as well. But you can still call them that in your own home, surely?"

"No, the Ministry was clever enough to curse the word, officials would immediately know if someone's saying that word or not. So I have to be cautious about it. And even the words : "Pure-blood, blood traitors, and etc have been cursed and banned in the wizarding community, son. Although I myself thought they were going overboard with it." His Father was telling him about it and he was intrigued by these delightful news.

"I'm so glad this is resolved, Draco." His mother was truly happy for her husband's sudden attitude change, although she was merely faking shock when she heard about the law in the Ministry from his Father's mouth.

He was as glad as his mother about it, however he wasn't aware she was the one pulling the strings behind this elaborated and original new law banning the words "Mudblood", "Pure-blood", "half-bloods" and etc in the wizarding world. And hence why it was a more bearable Christmas for him and his relationship with his male parent got somewhat better during this winter vacation.

"He's not an evil man, he's just been under bad influences in his childhood, such as my grandfather, Lucius Malfoy." He now concluded about him. Just as he got better acquainted now with his father, it was time again for him to go back to school. "_How time flies. But the good thing is, I get to see my Rose again_." He said to himself, quoting a Muggle saying.

His happiness though was marred by the fact that Rose now got a mysterious admirer, sending her flowery letters and expensive gifts and everything. One particular day he saw her wearing a silver looking bracelet, glittering on her wrist. So in the evening when he was done studying with her alone, he asked her about it :

"Rose, where did you get this?"

"I don't know, someone gave it to me as a gift."

"Aren't you afraid it's jinxed or something?"

"Jinxed? I don't know about that, Scorps, but I_ really_ like it." She said, stressing on the word "really".

"And if it were really jinxed or even worse, cursed?"

"I think you're just a wee bit jealous, Scorps, aren't you?"

"Am not. But I think it might dangerous for you to wear it?"

"No, it's not dangerous. I got it checked by the Defence against the Dark Arts Professor." She said a little defensively.

"Fine." And he was sulking for quite a good while, not talking to Rose because she got gifts and such from a secret admirer. He sighed. "Last year it was Thomas, now it's someone else. But who?"

Unknown to him however, Nott was behind all this and he gave her something every week until Valentine's and thought of asking her out on a date on that day, and he won't be coming to said date, making it possible for him, Scorpius Malfoy to comfort her while she's shedding tears of disappointment for it. However, he was smart enough to note Nott's weekly visits to the school's owlery, sending letters and elegantly wrapped packages to a certain someone. He didn't ask his good friend about it though, he just observed him whenever he had free time, and deducted on his own it was his boyhood friend who was sending those things to Rose. After some while, he couldn't contain himself any longer, so he confronted Nott about it in the Slytherin dormitory one day after Charms:

"Nott, I don't approve of you doing that to Rose." He said bluntly to him.

"Doing what to her, hmm?" He could see Nott was feigning innocence and just playing with him, his Slytherin traits showing which infuriated him even more.

"Sending her those gifts, what exactly is your plan with her, out with it or else." He demanded of his scheming friend Alexander Nott, or Lexis for intimates.

"Salazar's beard, no need to get so upset about it. I just wanted to give you a chance to console your crush and everything after her failed date."

"I don't want you to hurt Rose." He said to him with a warning tone in his voice.

"Listen to me, Scorps, I got this idea out of a Muggle romance novel, it's going to work like just so perfectly on her, I can guarantee it." said Nott stubbornly. But he still disagreed strongly with him :

"But it's going to hurt her in the process and I don't have the heart to see her heart-broken."

"She broke your heart last with year with Thomas, now it's her turn." Nott still said after his argument about not wanting to break Rose's heart.

"She didn't know I had feelings for her ever since I first met her, since she made an enemy out of me then. But it's all different now, we're best friends I can't bear it when she's all sad and everything." He explained this to his long-time friend who he knew cared about him deeply, though he was hoping this would make him see it the way he did, but it didn't, and so Nott asked him again :

"So you'd rather not be with her then?"

"Yes, I'd rather her to be happy than forcing her to be with me, if she didn't reciprocate my feelings on her own."

"Just give my idea a chance, mate, okay? I promise it's going to get you Rose. Last time it worked perfectly."

"What last time?" He asked his friend arching an eyebrow.

"Oh, right, you don't know about that. Might as well tell you all about it : it was your mother, I and Zabini who talked to the potion's master about setting you two up together in a school project." Quite shocked, he didn't know what to say and so after some time of pondering silently to himself, he said :

"Fine, I agree to your plan, Nott."

"That's great, Scorps. You finally understand I am doing everything for you as your one of your most trusted friend and fellow housemate. "

"Was this discussed with Oli and my mother too, Lexis?"

"No, they don't know a thing about it. It was only my idea."

The months after Christmas flew by so fast for 5th year Scorpius Malfoy, as he had homework and patrolling to do. Although he was still mad with Rose about getting these special attentions from a secret someone, he was forced to speak with her again because she was Gryfffindor's Prefect and he had to patrol with her every night to catch any younger trouble-making students. One night after a Prefect's meeting, she was the one to ask him :

"So you're not angry about me getting presents and the like anymore, Scorps?"

"I am still angry about it, but what can I do about it as your friend only? Nothing." He answered with honesty and Rose agreed with him, he Scorpius Malfoy, her best and inseparable friend, couldn't do anything about it.

"My best friend, Scorps." She added.

"But, but I want to be your Scorps and only yours, Rose."

"I don't know about that, Scorps, since I've been asked out by my secret admirer, he's been _oh so romantic_ and everything." But he didn't want to hear about him, and couldn't help but to be jealous of this other him in Rose's life, even though he knew this was all planned out by Nott.

After Valentine's though, to his surprise, her hot-tempered Lucy Weasley came to him to speak about Rose because she thought he was the one who asked her younger cousin out and left her waiting there for a night and so that was why she was so furious with him :

"You_ Malfoy._ I thought you were a good guy and I was on your side ever since Rose and you begad being friends and I was about to help you get Albus and James' support about your friendship with my older cousin. But how have you treated Rose now, like _trash_!" He could feel her intense fury with him in her vibrant and typical Weasley voice.

"Hold on Lucy Weasley, will you calm yourself down and let me explain myself to you?" "_Damn, she's a Head Girl, I can't take points off her from Gryffindor._"

"Fine, I'm waiting for your explanation, _Malfoy._" Surprisingly to him, he didn't care all that much anymore about people other than Rose calling him that.

"Look, it was Nott's plan, not mine. So go and yell at him instead, not me." He said with such brutal honesty in his eyes that she seemed to believe him.

"Right then, _Malfoy,_ I'll make sure to ask him about it and you'd better not be lying to me about it or I swear Al, James, Louis and Hug are going to hear about this." He wasn't scared of her threats however, because he knew he was telling her the truth about it.

"I swear on Salazar's honour, I am telling you the good honest and whole truth about it. Go ask Nott if you don't believe me."

And sure enough, with his buddy Nott's confessing everything to her, it got her older cousin off his back and James and Albus Potter didn't do anything to him while he was trying to comfort Rose in a secret passageway known only to him, his friends and Rose herself:

"Scorps, I should have listened to Lu and you about my secret admirer, I'm sorry I didn't. He didn't come at all to the date, and I waited for him for the whole night. I am just so angry with myself and him now, but more furious with myself because I was an idiot to fall for it."

"If I could have done anything to prevent this, Rose, trust me, I would have." He said as consolingly as he could.

"Nothing you could have done, Scorps. I should have known it was a scam, but I was too stupid." He really hated seeing his crush, no, the love of his life like this, crying so dishearteningly about something. It was partly his fault for letting Nott carrying on his evil plan, so he felt terrible about her shedding tears for it. After a while of comforting her with words, she rested her head in his arms and he was brave enough to ask her again :

"Rosie, what do you think about me being your Scorps now?"

"I think I'd like that, Scorps, but I'm afraid of our parents and what they'd think about us, and even about my cousins' prejudices against you and…" But he shut her up by putting his finger gently on her lips :

"Rosie, one thing at a time. My Father's better about Muggle-borns and half-bloods and such the like now, because the Ministry's been forcing him to work with your Uncle Bill Weasley and a Muggle-born together, so he had to change his mind about it quickly."

"Oh, that's wonderful, Scorps. But, what about my Father? You know how much he hates your dad, and because of that, I hated you too at first."

"I know that, so that's why I'm going to get Mother to tell him on Christmas next year, so don't you worry about this."

"And I can get my mum to help us too, she doesn't like it whenever my dad says anything negative about your family and Pure-bloods and all." Rose added and he nodded to it enthusiastically.

"So she's a lot like my Mother then because she admonishes my Father when he says bad stuff about Muggle-borns and half-bloods?"

"Yes. They have a lot in common, I'd say they're already good friends even, since they work together at the Ministry."

"Right, so that's one positive thing for us."

"And Scorps, before we go our separate ways for the Summer, I have a question for you?" She was quite unusually timid to him, her cheeks flushing a light pink L

"Yes go right ahead, Rosie, there should be no secrets between us, since we've been friends for almost 2 years and besides now, we just agreed to be boyfriend and girlfriend."

"Just some minutes ago though. Why did you want to be friends with me in my first year?"

"Because well, because, errm... I had a tiny wee bit of crush on you, Rosie. And when you rejected me and were mean to me for my first 2 years, you don't know how horrible I felt about it. Now I want to forget about that awful meeting with you and think only about our present relationship."

"Secret, might I add."

"It will be out in the open soon."

"Yeah Scorps. Sooner or later."

As he was scheming with her about how to tell his family and hers about their secret relationship, he found her to be more appeased by his suggestions. And his O.W.L.S. were quite something for him. _"I wonder how Rose's doing in her exams.._." But as he got on the Hogwart's Express back home for the 5th time in his teenage life, he knew he had passed them all with the highest marks possible, as expected of him by his Father mostly. His Father, if he mellowed since Christmas about his opinions on Muggle-borns and such, he was still quite demanding on his school grades.


	6. Why I am a Malfoy?

Doing his Summer homework was some sort of pleasure generally for Scorpius Malfoy, but as he thrived to get all "Os" in every Summer assignment too, he was working harder than the previous years in his hot, humid and dry little room. And so he was rarely seen talking to his Mother about Rose anymore and etc and more often than not, he spent his vacation in the Manor's rather large library. There, he found more helpful books than the Hogwarts' one. But he had to use the Hogwarts' library of course, when he was in school. Although now at home, he could use his family library whenever he wanted. However, his caring and loving Mother wanted to talk to him, so one evening after dinner when his father was out, she took him by his arm kindly, and asked him ever so directly :

"So, I want to know how's things with Rose now, Scorpius? There's no need to hide anything, as your Father's out for the night."

"Yeah, it's better, Mother. She's agreed to be my girlfriend, although we need to keep it a secret." He said just a bit sadly.

"I understand son, but you know what, I'll help you with that."

"How are you going to help me?" He asked, a bit disconcerted at his Mother's crypticness.

"Just you wait and see. I've already talked to Hermione Granger Weasley, my co-worker at the Ministry and she's already very enthusiastic about my plan. You want Ronald Weasley, her father and yours to accept your relationship with her, right?"

"Yes, but I don't know how to tell her father, nor mine, Mother."

"Something's going to happen in the next month or so, just you wait until then and see."

"Mother, you know I hate it when you answer so cryptically."

"But that's what's fun, dear." She said, her eyes twinkling with amusement.

"Well, I don't like _your _idea of fun."

"_She was a Slytherin too_." He commented later in the evening to himself.

Much to his amazement though, about a month later, he and his family got an out of the blue invitation from Ronald Weasley to go to the Burrow. "_Why would Rose's father invite us for_? _This is something never done before. A Weasley willingly inviting us, the Malfoys?_" He asked himself, thinking the invitation might be a trap. "_But the Weasleys are all Gryffindors and they aren't as plotting as us, Slytherins._" He reasoned with himself that night when his family just got the invitation. His Father wouldn't say anything about it either when he scrupled to ask him about the odd affair. And his parents were firmly planning to go to the party, hosted by the Weasleys.

And so there he was, with his parents and the Weasleys at the Burrow. The Weasleys were all wearing their best robes, and since they were richer now, they could afford first-hand and luxury robes. He didn't know what to make of this and he was a bit non-plussed. At said party her father was first to speak up to everyone :

"So everyone's probably wondering what all of this is about?" He was eager to know why he was there, but his father steadied him.

"Well, let me begin by saying, I never thought I'd do this myself, inviting you, the Malfoys there in my own house. But I'm doing this because I have Mr. Malfoy to thank for, because he saved Bill Weasley, my older brother in the recent and most dangerous thieve catching mission at Gringott's." He could see his Mother exchanging a knowing smile with her Mother, her co-worker, but about what? That was privy only to them. But he guessed the two ladies had something to do with this Summer evening's strange party at the Burrow.

"And I never thought I'd save a Weasley myself." His Father replied, only in joke though, he could sense it in his voice.

"Yes, so thank you, Malfoy, for saving my brother Bill, if not for you, he would have been in his grave now." Bill also thanked his father profusely and he knew now the Weasleys were sincere and simple folks. Before, he always thought they were going to eat him alive, just because he was a Malfoy.

"Now everybody, please sit anywhere you like at the table. Dinner's ready." said Molly Weasley, Rose's paternal grandmother invitingly to him and his parents, trying to make this evening as less awkward as possible for all of them. He never met her before, although his Father often talked about her and her relationship with her son, Ronald Weasley, his Father's former enemy. At the end of said dinner, his Father made an unusual announcement to everyone sitting there, either listening to the Weird Sisters or playing a game of Exploding Snap :

"In the future, the Weasleys and the Malfoys will no longer be enemies, but partners and teammates." He saw Rose was clapping her hands at that and he too, did so and was so very proud of him.

"I guess him working with your Uncle Bill did something good to him."

"Yes, it did and it's going to be much easier for us to tell them, but I still want to wait until the partnership between our family is not so rocky anymore."

"You're right, Rose. I agree with it, so when do you think is a good time to tell then ?"

"After a year of good, solid friendship, I think. My dad might still not take it too well, considering he just got to see your dad in a new light just now."

"Yes, you're always right, Rose."

And that was why when his family and Rose's were seen buying school supplies together and sitting together at ice cream shops and pubs, it made a sensation in the wizarding community.

"I can just see the headlines in the Prophet now, Scorps."

"Yes, Rosie, me too : '_Two feuding Families brought together in peace at last_'." He said dramatically.

And immediately afterwards, just as he and Rose guessed it, his family and hers were in the Prophet, seen shaking hands and everything and the title was : "_The Malfoys and the Weasleys, have they reconciled or what?_"

He had little time to digest the fact that his Father was now partners with Bill Weasley, his secret girlfriend's older uncle. And he was no longer going on about the Weasleys being blood traitors anymore in the house, and so that was why it was more agreeable than usual for him, while he was staying home, just before school started again.

He had the impression that school started earlier this year because he just got used to his Father not speaking so negatively about the Weasleys anymore. Because of this, he wanted to have more time to get to know his father, but he had no time for that, as he was now boarding the Hogwarts Express once again with his parents and the Weasleys. Since his father radically changed his opinions about Rose's family and developed some kind of "friendship" with her father, Ronald Weasley, the only other person he had to get the approval of was his menacing and stern Grandfather : Lucius Malfoy. "_And thank Salazar my great-great...Grandparents are dead and my GrandAunt Bellatrix Lestrange is sentenced to life in Azkaban, otherwise, that's going to complicate matters a lot more._" He was musing once at school.

Of course, his two best mates in Slytherin and other students all read the Prophet and wanted to know what was this all about, so one night in the Slytherin Common Room, they were asking him impatiently :

"Well, is that true, Scorpius, your family and the Weasleys are now friends, no longer enemies?"

"That's what Father said, yes, indeed."

"We thought this was just gossip trash and nothing more, never thought this would be real."

"Well, get used to it, it's real." He answered his housemates a tad dryly, not wishing to give them further information about this.

"And surely this didn't happen overnight, so tell us all about it."

"I don't have to and I'm tired, going to sleep, guys." He said, yawning obnoxiously loudly and throwing his arms in the air.

"Fine, Scorps, you go to bed."

All the following weeks, his housemates gossiped so much day and night about it, that he wanted to Silence them, but he just asked them :

"Don't you have homework to do?"

"Yeah, we do."

"Well go and do them, stop staring at me." He ordered them out of the Common Room. Now alone, he took out his talking mirror from his green and silver robes' pockets, given to him by his dear Mother as a birthday present and he found it quite useful, especially right now.

"Can't I have some peace with myself?"

"Yes you can have some right now, but you haven't talked to me for quite a while." His mirror friend Mauve was chiding him back. He named his mirror this way because it was somewhere between mauve and purple.

"Mauve, why is my life so complicated?"

"Because your family name is Malfoy."

"But, why am I a Malfoy?" He asked Mauve, desperately searching for answers in his mirror, the one he confided everything in such like his innermost thoughts and feelings, his bottled up frustrations and whatnot. So to speak, he trusted Mauve more than his two friends, Nott and Zabini, because he was 100% sure she'd never tell his secrets to anyone else. And so he allowed himself to let it all out whenever he spoke to Mauve, which he had for more than a decade.

"You can't choose your family nor your parents, but you can be yourself, Scorpius Malfoy. Even though others see you as just a 'Malfoy.'" To him, this was somewhat comforting.

"I still wish I wasn't one." He fought pointlessly with Mauve.

"Well, no matter however much you want others to call you 'Scorpius', you're still a Malfoy after all."

"You're not making me feel any better, Mauve."

"Yes I know, but you need your beauty sleep now, Scorpius."

"Yeah and good night Mauve."

"Good night, don't forget to talk to me from to time."

Since the start of his 6th year, he resumed his nightly revisions with Rose and he barely saw the time passing. He quite enjoyed these nights because he spent quality time with his secret girlfriend. Well not so secret anymore, as he was going to find out about it a bit later in the year when one evening, Albus and Hugo dragged him away and pushed him with force in another hidden passageway and he was fearing the worst for himself. "_I'm lucky though, Fred, James and Louis are out of Hogwarts this year_." But he was pleasantly surprised, her little brother and her Potter cousin didn't harass him like in the past, instead, Albus and Hugo both began hesitantly:

"Er… I am here to…ermm..."

"What, Potter? His patience was wearing thin while he was waiting for Albus's response.

"To apologize to you for everything we've done in the past, on behalf of James, Fred Louis too. We're sorry about this. We didn't know what kind of a guy you were then, we just knew you from our dad's description of you." Her little brother answered naively for her cousin. He could see Albus Severus Potter wasn't used to apologizing to anyone because if he were, he'd not be stuttering in front of him.

"And do you think I'd accept it that easily?" He saw how genuine the two boys were, yet he still said that not wanting them to think of him as someone who forgave easily.

"Fine, what will you have me do for you to accept my apology?" This time, it was Albus.

"Firstly, I'd like to ask : why are you apologizing to me all of a sudden? You must have some ulterior motives."

"_Malfoy, _we have none. We want to apologize to you because we read it in the papers, your Father's friends with our cousin Rose's family, the Weasleys, and so here we are." Hugo explained to him. Even if he were younger in age than her only Potter cousin in school now, he was more mature than him.

"Apology accepted since you two seem quite genuine about it. But I want you to do something for me : speak well of me in front of the Weasleys, especially Rose's father, Ronald Weasley." He wondered if those two were worthy of his trust or not.

"Because you're in a _secret_ relationship with her?" Albus asked him, quite certain of himself.

"Yes, how do you know about it?"

"Don't think we're idiots and everything. We've seen you with Rose quite often at night for about 2 years now, Malfoy."

"Rose and I were only studying." He tried to defend himself, but even to him, this sounded quite false, as if he and Rose were really doing something else.

"Only studying, really, Malfoy, not shagging or anything like that?" Albus Severus Potter was challenging him.

"Yes we were only revising for our exams, but thanks for the idea, Potter. I might put it to use." The younger Potter was about to say something else, but his older brother cut him off by saying :

"Well, see you, _Malfoy_."

"Scorpius." He insisted instinctively. But the two Potters paid him no mind as they left the place hurriedly.

The more he thought her male cousins' and her little brother's apology, the more he found it bizarre as they sought him out first and apologized to him, he still couldn't quite believe it. "_I must be dreaming or something, there must be something else to it, the Potter brothers could be as plotting as us, Slytherins._" But no, as the two Potter stopped having skirmishes and the like with him, and were even somewhat friendly to him, even in class. "This must be for Rose's sake." He said as he was pondering about his funny, but positive relationship with her two male cousins. However, he couldn't know it was her younger cousin Lily who asked them to make amends with him. Although only cousins, Rosie was in reality like the older sister Lily never had, so she thought she could do something for her to repay her kindness to her.

"The only one I have to win over now is my grandfather, but he'll give in easily now that how his son and his son's wife, which means my Father and my Mother's already accepted the Weasleys as work partners, and I hope later on as friends."

As his mind was frequently on how to win over his grandfather, Lucius Malfoy about Rose, a half-blood and his study sessions with her, he didn't even notice when the Quidditch season started too. And luckily for him, nobody asked him if he were going to try out for them or not, since there were other more talented players than him on his houseteam. But his two best friends got selected, Olivier Zabini as Chaser and Alexander Nott as Keeper.

"Well, congratulations, Lexis, Oli."

"Thank you, mate. But we're sad you're not on the team with us."

"It's fine, I've just lost my passion for the sport now." He felt the need to explain himself to his two most intimate mates.

"No, Scorps, you're just thinking too much about Rose, your secret girlfriend." Zabini teased him and he never missed any opportunity to tease him about Rose and this got somewhat on his nerves.

"Will you stop that, Zabini?" Zabini knew he meant business when he called him by his last name only, so he fell silent.

"Then tell us what's on your mind, Scorps?" entreated Nott.

"Well, her two Potter cousins apologized to me, just a little before Quidditch started and this is ruffling my feathers a bit."

"And did you accept their apology or not?" Zabini wanted to know.

"Yes I did, because there's no reason why I shouldn't and I did it for Rose too, and I'm kinda kinda friends with her cousins Albus and James Potter."

"And what does she think about this and you, a Malfoy, friends with the Potters? Do they think of you as their friends or is it only your mind, Scorps?"

"Well, in one of our lessons together at night after class, she said she was very pleased about it. And I'm happy she's pleased about it and you're the one thinking too much into it now, Oli."

"Always thinking about her before you, right, Scorps?" He could tell his 2 friends since the cradle were quite concerned about him.

"Yes, Oli, that's what boyfriends do."

"How are you planning to tell her dad?"

"Well, now her dad's not the problem anymore, since he was first to accept Father's partnership offer at the summer party. As you know, my family was invited by hers at the Burrow."

"Oh yeah, how was the party?"

"Quite enjoyable actually, Nott. Now the person I'm worried about the most is my grandfather, Lucius Malfoy and how he's going to take my relationship with an impure 'half-blood' like Rose."

"Well if you ask me, Scorps, I say don't mind him too much, he's not that important, you just need your parent's approval, yes? Plus, he's not going to accept her no matter what, because he's the older generation and has obsolete ideas about blood purity and such."

"Thanks for your advice, Zabini. I never thought to look at it this way."

"That's what friends are for. Don't forget to 'study' with Rose." Both Zabini and Nott were now making loud kissing noises, though since he knew it would be futile to tell them to stop, he just said :

"I just wish Father could be friends quicker with her father. This is going to be my Christmas wish."

"You're a bit early for that, don't you think Scorps?"

"Not really, it's only a month away from it and anyway, see you tomorrow in class, guys."

And his Christmas wish indeed came true, after a term of new spells, curses, jinxes, hexes and potions to learn and the teachers were working them harder than ever, as now, he and his fellow 6th years got a year and a half before the N.E.W.T.S and he heard the 7th year students talking about it and they thought it was quite terrible. But he was so glad for Rose, since she's got more self-esteem this year, as opposed to all those years in the past, when she'd tell him all about failing her mid-terms. After his stressful week of mid-terms, he was asking her while on the Hogwarts' Express for Christmas and New Year:

"So, how did you find the exams, Rosie?"

"Well, I think I did okay, what about you, Scorps?"

"I'm certain I'll get all 'O's, and I'm pretty sure you would too, you revised even more than I did."

"Yes, let's just hope for the best, Scorps." She said as she snuggled him close. He treasured those moments as much as he could, since he wasn't going to see her for 2 weeks.

But there was a big surprise waiting for him for Christmas : his parents, in addition to his paternal and maternal Grandparents also invited the Weasleys and the Potters home. His Father told him it was his Mother's initiative.

"But why Mother?" He asked, quite baffled.

"Don't you want us all to get along, so it's easier for you and Rose to tell us and we're all going to be family anyway when you marry Rose, and Christmas is a time for family reunion. And I invited Grandfather Lucius and Grandmother Narcissa as well, but I didn't tell them I'd have the Potters or the Weasleys here too."

"You sly fox, Mother."

"Well, I was in Slytherin at Hogwarts too, just like your Father and like you, Scorpius."

For this Christmas the Malfoy Manor was quite crowded and scrumptiously decorated for the occasion. He wasn't used to it since in the winter holidays, it was normally just him and his parents, sometimes his paternal Grandparents and his maternal Grandparents would visit, but now the Potters, the Weasleys and his Greengrass Grandparents, as well as his Aunt Daphne, still Miss Greengrass, who he saw only on occasions such like these were all there and even Teddy Lupin, Harry Potter's godson. He could sense the tension in the air around the table and such, although Albus, James kept their promises to him to speak well of him in front of Ronald Weasley in exchange of him accepting their apology, and he was glad he trusted them.

Another good thing was, Dominique and Roxanne, as well were corroborating with her two Potter cousins about him and he could see his dear Rosie was smiling approvingly about this. All went on nicely when he saw his Grandfather, Lucius Malfoy, was about to explode :

"I've never been around so much blood-traitors and muggle-filths and half-bloods and the like in my life." And as soon as he uttered those words though, he got a howler from the Ministry and the whole household was listening to it intently:

"Lucius Abraxas Malfoy, you are never to say those words ever again since they are banned from the magical community now. But because this is your first infraction, we're going to be lenient with you on that, your fine will just be 500 sickles. But if you say those words again in the future, you're going to lose Galleons and maybe your freedom on the 3rd offence. We in the Ministry, are very serious about this." Immediately after he got his howler, his Grandfather left the Manor without any ceremony, but his Grandmother Narcissa stayed. Rose's family was able to enjoy themselves after his Grandfather's departure. Despite the disastrous dinner, however, Rosie's mother Hermione Granger Weasley still said formally to his parents, this Christmas celebrations' hosts :

"Thank you for having us, Mrs. and Mr. Malfoy."

"Our pleasure. I'm so very sorry about Lucius, I hope you still liked the Christmas party nevertheless and won't hold any hard feelings against my husband or my son because of him." His Mother Astoria was overly courteous to her colleague, Hermione Granger Weasley.

"Not to worry about it, Mrs. Malfoy." said Rose.

"Oh, call me Astoria, please, sweetheart. Mrs. Malfoy here is Narcissa Black Malfoy, my son's paternal grandmother."

"Nonsense, Astoria, you are my son's wife, so you are lawfully Mrs. Malfoy too, although you were a Greengrass before your marriage to Draco." His Granny Narcissa objected to it. This was one of the very few times she opined about anything, unlike his Mother, who had an opinion on about everything, he remarked in his mind.

After the Potters and the Weasleys all left the Manor, he thought he still quite liked the Christmas evening, even though it was ruined somewhat by his Grandfather from his Father's side : Lucius Malfoy.

Chritmas vacation, however, like all good things in life, had to come to an end, and it was with anticipation and renewed energy that he attended his classes and tackled his workload with Rose. He was now more inseparable than ever with her and cuddled with her each night after those studies, ironically on Albus Severus Potter, her overly-protective paternal cousin's suggestion early in the year.

"Even Hugo's better than Al." He pointed that out to her one night after their lessons together.

"You know Scorps, if Al or Hugo or my dad really knew what we've been doing in there, they'd hex or jinx or even worse curse you into oblivion. And you're lucky my cousin Fred's out of school, or he'd do worse things to you than them." His Rosie was telling her about her bad presentiments about this.

"No, don't worry, since my Father and yours have already become friends, as I've read from Mother's owls, you shouldn't worry too much about it, Rosie."

"What about your Malfoy Grandfather, Lucius Malfoy?"

"I don't really need his approval; I just care about my parents'."

"Right, but my granddad Weasley's going to be just so mad about this, I can see his over-reaction about this already. And maybe my dad's going to be slightly better than him, since as you said before, now my dad and yours have become sort of friends because of work and such.

"You see Rosie, you're too negative in life, how's your relationship with your Grandmother Weasley?"

"What are thinking of now, why are you bringing her up in this conversation?" She was just a wee bit puzzled. But in that resourceful Slytherin and plotting Malfoy mind of his, he was already trying to see how he could use Mrs Molly Weasley to convince her husband as she didn't appear to have any hate towards him or his family on a whole.

"I was thinking, if you had a good relationship with her, you could get her to persuade your Weasley grandfather."

"Oh, that's brilliant, thank you, Scorps. And she's doting on me like a second mother, because I'm a girl and she loves girls. Aunt Ginny says she favoured her too when she was a little girl, because Granny Molly prefers daughters to sons. And why can't you do the same thing your Granny Narcissa?"

"My plan will be perfect then and because he's even more stubborn than Father, and it took the Ministry's laws for him to change about your family, Rosie. Where's my goodnight kiss now?" He said, seeing it was already night.

"Right there." She said brushing her lips with such passion on his. In the kiss, he could feel what she felt for him and in that little head of his, he thanked Merlin, Salazar, and even Gryffindor she was his now, after some years of slowly working into her heart.

If his first half a year were a roller-coaster ride for him, it was quite calm in the next half. He still studied overzealously, and he thought his steady girlfriend of 1 year complemented him quite well in schoolwork and in personality, although they sometimes clashed and argued, like every couple in the whole world would.

By the end of his 6th year, he learnt from his Mother's letters to him that his Father was friends with Ronald Weasley.

"_That's great for Rosie and I_." He thought while on the train. _  
_

**Please read and comment, thanks.**


	7. I really am Scorpius Malfoy

"This is my last Summer before my graduation year, my 7th year at Hogwarts. And I'll be an adult in one year too. Quite a lot to be excited about. And one more year before my N.E.W.T.S. If those are anything like my O.W.L.S, I'd not crack under anxiety and pressure. I know my skills and abilities and more importantly, I know myself well. I'm not like Rosie, always worried about failing. I just don't think about it afterwards. She's gotten more self-confident over the years, however she'll always think too much about her grades after her exams, no matter how much I tell her not to, and that's not very good for her on a whole." He was mumbling to himself in his own ostentatiously decorated little room. He quite liked being in his room, alone with his own thoughts. And he still sometimes talked to Mauve, his mirror friend. Mauve was like a diary to him, he told her every secret of his and he needed her especially when he was quarrelling with Zabini and Nott.

"Even if there's much to celebrate about for me, I'm still not Draco Malfoy, I am Scorpius Malfoy. Some people at school still call me '_Malfoy_'. But as long as Rosie doesn't call me that, it's fine with me." He very often talked to himself when he was feeling a little stressed, he was this way because he worked more diligently than ever on his essays, potions and even practiced Charms objects and practiced spells and the like with his mother, Zabini and Nott. He knew those 2 ever since he was born, and they were always on his side, no matter what. And he was thankful to them for always being there for him.

On the other hand, his Father he didn't know too well, as he was often absent for work, but he could feel he was trying very hard to be a good Father since his last 2 Summers. And he gave him some other chances to redeem himself as a Father to him, by practicing his newly learnt spells from Hogwarts too with him, when his Mother was working extra hours at the Ministry. And so this was one of these times when he was trying to bond with his Father, after he changed his mind about Muggle-borns and whatnot :

"Father, I don't know what I should when I'll be out of Hogwarts."

"I don't know either, son, it's your choice."

"Really, Father? You're not going to impose your choice on me?"

"No. You are you, you are Scorpius Malfoy, not me, son."

"I agree with you there, Father, I really am Scorpius Malfoy, not you, Draco Malfoy, and you know what Father, I've made Head Boy, just got my owl from Hogwarts." This was his first time saying his Father's full name, and it impacted on his relationship with him a lot. Light tears actually fell from the adult's greyish eyes.

"Congratulations on that and thank you, son, for taking the time to be with me. I really appreciate that."

"No worries, Father. I enjoyed this afternoon too. But I'd like to ask you something?"

"Yes, son, go right ahead."

"What do you think about the Weasleys now?"

"The Weasleys? Why are you talking about them now, son, is there something I should know about them?"

"No nothing, I just want to know your honest thoughts and opinions about them, coming from you straightforwardly, Father. Not from Mother."

"Right then, since you asked, son, without my perceptions of them as 'blood traitors', I now they are all right folks, not so bad. Besides, Ronald Weasley, my ex-enemy in school changed a lot. And I got to know and appreciate Bill Weasley in my professional life, his older brother. He's quite an intelligent person really, helped me a lot with the thieve catching mission I had at work, so I partnered up with him for quite a while, and I am still his teammate at work. And after I've learnt to like him, I grew to like his little brother Ronald Weasley too. We're not best friends, of course, but we're still some sort of friends. Why we even go out sometimes for a drink or a meal."

"That's nice to hear, what's your job exactly though Father?"

"My job is to catch thieves and bank-breakers at Gringotts. And this particular thieve is quite intelligent. He's hid himself in the Muggle-world, illegally using magic around Muggles, and so it's quite dangerous for our world. We don't want to be seen by Muggles, you see, son." "_Father doesn't want to talk about it anymore, so I'll respect his need for privacy._" Growing up, he learnt to respect other people's personal space, but when Rose asked for some 'me' time with herself, he still had some issues with that.

"Yeah, I understand and that's why also you need to work with a Muggle-Born, isn't it? Thanks for telling me about your job, Father."

"It's fine, son. Don't hesitate to ask me if you need to know more about it. And what do you want to be anyway, after you're out of Hogwarts?"

"I don't know, I'm undecided, I still have a year to make a choice, Father."

"And that's exactly why I pushed you to get the best grades for everything, so all the doors are open for you in your career life. Because for those who haven't passed some courses, the choices are pretty slim."

"Thank you Father. I love studying anyway. And I'll be sure to get 'O's like all the other years."

"It's time to go to bed, son. Talking to you has been good, we should do it again sometime, and you've grown up, son. Why, you were a tiny toddler when I brought you home from St-Mungo's that night."

"Err, you've changed a lot too, Father." He was a little shy when his Father was talking this way about him.

As he did have more chances to talk to him in the following months, he discovered some crucial information for his relationship with his Gryffindor girlfriend : his Rosie's father, too, no longer saw his Father as an enemy. "Well, it's going to be a piece of cake to tell them then. But I'm still scared of her father's over-protectiveness, even though I told Rosie to see the positive side of things last year."

And so that was why he was so pensive and filled with apprehension somewhat, when he entered his final graduation year. Other than his marks to think about, he had to think of things such as "how to tell her over-protective father about their secret relationship". "But since Albus and James and Louis and even Hugo took it better than I thought, he can't be worse than them." He was often reassuring himself this way, looking at it optimistically. Quite unlike Rose, he was quite a positive young lad, others might take it as "over self-inflated ego" or such the like, but in reality, he was just quite an optimistic guy. He tried to cultivate some of his positive spirit in Rose, but she always thought the worse about everything. One day he found out why, when he was doing a Charms essay with her in the library's section especially reserved for teamwork, so he can talk to her while writing said essay :

"Say, Rosie, why are you always so negative about everything?"

"Well, if I see it too positively, I might be disappointed if it's not so good, you know. So it's better for me to see it as negatively as I can, to avoid such great disappointments in life, Scorps. I'm not really like you, who can always see the good side of everything."

"Yeah, Rose, you should try sometimes to be like me, it'll help you a lot through the year."

"I suppose you're right, Scorps, but I just can't seem to. It's due to my mum's raising me, I think."

"Speaking of which, we'll need her when we tell our families about our relationship around Christmas, Rosie."

"Yes, I spoke to her about it already, and she's willing 100 % to help us, and she says she'll get Aunt Ginny and Fleur to help too at your family's Christmas party."

"That's great, Rosie. I'm glad she isn't holding anything against my family. I've heard she's suffered quite a lot with Father at school."

"But mum's a very forgiving person, and she wishes for the family feud to end too, like my Aunt Ginny as well as Auntie Fleur and Audrey. I just hope it's not going to be like last year's Christmas though."

"No, I'm sure it won't be. You are very close to your mother, aren't you?"

"Yes. And Scorps, why do you always call my parents and yours 'Father' and 'Mother' so formally?"

"Because my parents want me to respect them, I guess it's more relaxed in your family."

"Yeah, my family's the best out there."

"What about your father, Ronald Weasley?"

"Other than being a wee bit over-protective of me, he's really a good dad, and although I'm not this close to him as my mum, I still have a good relationship with him. And you mustn't have a very good relationship with yours, right? I've met your dad at the Christmas party, and he seems like the cold-hearted kind of person."

"Well you know what, he's changed a lot, and really trying to be a good Father to me. Although he missed my childhood and most of my teenagehood, he's trying to catch up with me and I appreciate his efforts." He said, defending his Father in front of her. He never thought he'd hear himself say these words, but it was true, his Father was really trying his best to be a good one to him.

"Good to hear, Scorps. I can't take anymore of that essay, we'll meet sometime again for it, okay?"

"Yea sure, but I think yours is already excellent after I've checked it for you. No inconsistencies or anything else."

"Yours too, bye Scorps, nighty." And she hugged him close before going to her dormitory.

Some days after he turned in his major Transfiguration paper, Albus Severus Potter was first to talk to him, though James and Louis weren't with him this year, as they already graduated a years ago. "_What could he possibly want with me now_?"

"So when are you going to tell your family and Rose's about you and her, Malfoy?"

"It's Scorpius, Potter. And it's none of your business."

"None of my business, when I was going to help you with that and I think I as her cousin, have every right to know about her relationship with you, Malfoy?" Albus almost screeched and insisted on calling him '_Malfoy_'. He let it pass this time though.

"_Fine_ then, Rose and I have decided to tell them around Christmas, after all it's the best time for that kind of thing. My family's going to host a party like last year and everything, and it'll be the occasion for us to tell our respective families about it. And by the way, how are James, Louis, Roxanne and Lucy? I've heard from Rose she was very close to them. Although they're a bit older than her?"

"Oh them, thank you for asking, Malfoy. They've been around my cousin Dominique's antique shops, that sell things used by famous witches and wizards, and it's quite a very busy business." He could tell the middle Potter wasn't very comfortable with calling him by his first name, so he just asked again :

"And what about Victoire, Molly and Fred? I heaven't heard about them since they left Hogwarts?"

"Victoire's doing great : she's attracting tons of customers using her part-Veela charms in Mol's fairy flowers and plants shop, called Victoire and Molly's Veela Gardens, funded by Uncle George and my cousin Fred, and she's engaged to Teddy Lupin your maternal cousin. Why are you asking about them?"

"I just wanted to know about them, that's all. And Potter, good luck with your mid-terms and N.E.W.T.S and everything else this year."

"Same to you, Malfoy. Lilykins' been quite right about you : you're not like your ex-Death-Eater dad Draco Malfoy at all."

"Well, thanks for saying that about me, Potter. See you in class." "_Could it be Lily who told them to apologize to me for her cousin Rose last year?"  
_

"You too, Malfoy."

"Good thing we're on friendly terms this year." He remarked to himself after Potter left him alone.

But he thought this year was so different from his other years at Hogwarts in general. For one thing, he could publicly hug Rosie and everything, because their families have become friends and everything. This was a weight less on his mind because he thought they were going to be more accepting about his relationship with her.

If these were great things for him, however, on the negative side of things, he didn't watch a single Quidditch match no more, simply because he had developed a horror for the sport ever since he discovered he had airsickness and watching others try out and practice made him quite moody. Even Zabini and Nott took note of his strange attitude towards Quidditch, and so they asked him one day, concerned :

"Why aren't watching us play anymore, Scorps?" Zabini asked, always so straightforwardly.

"Well, because hummm… I don't know how to put this…"

"The great Scorpius Malfoy, at loss for words?"

"Well erm, Zabini, it's like this…" He tried once again. He was on a whole quite eloquent, but this time because it was something personal about him, he was struggling with the right words to describe how he felt to his two best mates.

"Why don't you just tell us honestly, Scorps? We're just worried about you because you've so unhappy these days and you not watching Quidditch is something out of the ordinary." suggested Nott.

"Plus, you can tell us anything. We've been friends since we were babies and even grew up together."

"Guys, thank you. I've decided to stop watching Quidditch because I'm airsick, so I can't play anymore."

"You should have told us sooner." reproached Zabini.

"Yes I know Zabini, Nott, I shouldn't have kept it from you guys for so long."

"Zabini and I are going to resign from the team, Scorps."

"What for? Why?"

"Because you don't want to watch us play anymore."

"You two play, you don't have to do this for me."

"I insist, Scorps. Don't worry about us, we're doing this for you voluntarily."

"No Nott, you and Zabini love to play. I won't let you do this for me."

"Scorps, Nott and I can do without Quidditch, since we'll have to study harder to for our N.E.W.T.S now, so no time for silly amusement like Quidditch."

"Are you two certain about this?"

"Yes." And Zabini nodded in agreement with Nott.

"So that's settled, Scorps. We'll be resigning tomorrow."

He then read it from the student newspapers that Zabini and Nott soon were replaced by Goyle's daughter and Crabe's son, Slytherin's infamous and notorious bullies, harassers, a bit like the Potters in the past. Alison Goyle wanted his heart too once before he got in a relationship with Rosie. He knew this because once he found what she was going to do Rose, even though he was seen as her enemy then, he still talked to Miss Goyle out of doing anything to her. But now he's heard from some Slytherin female gossipers she's with Crabe's son, Mark Crabe. "_Excellent match : one's got no brains, and the other's got no looks. She can't even compare with my Rose."_

All seemed to go so well for him, in school he's got "Os" for every test, and his relationship with Rose was blossoming and she was less shy than before about physical touching, therefore she kissed him more passionately than ever now and he loved that. He couldn't wait until Christmas to tell both his parents and hers about the news. And in the bat of an eye, it was inevitably Christmas break.

"So see you on Christmas, Rosie."

"Yeah, see you then." Since he noticed Albus was watching them, so he didn't dare to kiss fully her on the lips, but he hugged her close to him.

"_Everything will be out in the open after Christmas_. _And I can kiss her whenever I want, no need to hide it anymore_."

"Mother, Father, I'm home."

"Hello son, so you've got back? It's been such a long term. And you've grown taller than the beginning of the year."

"Yes, Father. I'm all grown up now. I'm almost an adult now."

"Emphasis on the 'almost'."

"So your Mother's been telling me about Rose being your girlfriend and everything, so I know your secret."

"Mother's been telling you about that? And you're fine with it?" He was a little affronted by his Mother's telling his Father without telling him, but he thought : "_It__'__s better than me telling him myself about it_."

"Yes, ever since I got to know the Weasleys more, I grew to like her family. And I think she's a brilliant girl and very lady-like, she'd make a great Malfoy wife."

"But Father, I don't want her to be a Malfoy wife, I want her to be herself, that's why I love Rosie."

"Well, all right then. Let's have dinner."

After he learnt his Mother told his Father about it behind his back, he felt a bit betrayed, but didn't reproach her for it. "_After all, she did it all for me_." And then the Weasleys, the Potters, and his maternal Grandparents, the Greengrass, all came for Christmas and he felt just a bit excited about it. But this time, his Granny Narcissa came without her husband, his Grandfather. "_This is going to be big_." He thought about the party.

"Everybody, please sit anywhere you like. My husband and I have something important to say." He heard his Mother say when all the guests sat down for dinner.

"Our son Scorpius Malfoy has been in a relationship with your daughter Rose Weasley for about 2 years already." Draco Malfoy announced quite bluntly and tactlessly.

"So Rosie, he's the mystery boy you've been telling us in your letters about all this year, yeah?" She merely nodded, not even looking at her dad, Ronald Weasley.

"Boy, you'd better treat my daughter Rose good, or else. And I hope you're not going to be like your Father : a cheater and a playboy." He was threatening him.

"Sir, you should know this : I really am Scorpius Malfoy, and not Draco Malfoy, so I'd like you to not confuse me with my Father, even though we look alike." He was just little nervous as he said this.

"Scorpius won't do this to Rose, he's a great guy. I can vouch for him. I've seen it with my own eyes, when he protected Rose against that big bully Allison Goyle, Uncle Ron, he's trustworthy." To his surprise, Al stood up for him. "_And he's seen me protecting Rose against the female Slytherin bully_?" _  
_

"Yeah he's a loyal and faithful guy. I've not seen him with any other girls than Rose, for 2 years already." Roxanne also said for him. He thought his relationship with his girlfriend's cousins was indeed strange, since they stuck up for him without being close friends with him.

"And _you_, Hugo, what do you think of him?" Her father wanted to hear his only son's opinions about him. He prayed to Merlin the little Hugo Weasley would answer his father positively.

"Yes dad. He's very good to Sister Rose and to me as well. He's been acting like an older brother to me, and even letting me off when I did something bad to him in school."

"Really, Hugo? Is that really what you think of him?" If her father believed it, her grandfather Arthur didn't.

"Yes, Grandfather, although he's a Slytherin, and a Pure-blood and a Malfoy, and can be quite a bit sly and everything, he's not evil, he's a good person at heart."

"_Wow, did Hugo just praise me_?"

"Besides, Ronald, you've cheated on me with Lavender Brown yourself, so you can't be a hypocrite and ask him to be perfect, there's no such thing as a perfect guy in this whole wizarding world, just give him a chance, even though he's a Malfoy."

"Yes, listen to your wife, Ron, she's right. They deserve another chance." "_I'll have to thank her Granny Molly too afterwards._"

"And you've snatched away the woman I was in love with for all these years and I've even forgiven you for this, so why can't you give my son a chance? To have the things I could never have, including the woman he loves?" He never knew his dad to be this honest about his feelings ever before, this was a first for him. "_So that__'__s why he hated Rose__'__s dad so much in school_. _But what about Harry Potter_? _I__'__ll have to ask him about it_."

Her dad and granddad Weasley said nothing afterwards. He was now overlyjoyed the tense Christmas dinner was over, and thank Merlin her father didn't over-react, due to her cousins speaking for him and everything. And neither did his, because he knew about it all beforehand. He found him to be quite understanding of his relationship with Rose. So he went to find him on his own once :

"Thank you, Father, for accepting Rose in the family."

"Well, since you're as stubborn as your mother and won't like any of those girls I had in mind for you, I didn't think it'd do me or you any good if I were to oppose openly to it. Besides, as I said before, I really like Rose. She's well-mannered and everything. So no need to thank me."

"I wanted to thank you anyway."

"You're going back to school soon, Scorpius." His Father changed the topic to school because he didn't want to talk about it anymore.

"You called me Scorpius, Father, you never did before?"

"Well, you are Scorpius Malfoy, aren't you?"

"Yes I am, Father, thank you for recognizing that. And just another thing, are the N.E.W.T.S anywhere like the O.W.L.S?"

"They are a similar, only the N.E.W.T.S are more challenging. The only advice I can give you is : study as much as you can."

"Yeah, Father, I will. And now that I don't watch Quidditch anymore, I'll have more time to study and everything."

"I wish you luck on your N.E.W.T.S and your Mother and I will be coming to your graduation ceremony."

"You will? Thanks, Father."

"Why don't you call me 'Dad' for a change?"

"Really, I always thought you didn't like it when I called you that."

"Well you thought wrong, that way it's going to make us closer, Scorpius."

"All right, Dad." He felt something strong when he first called him 'Dad' and he saw a tear falling from his usually cold grey eyes. "He's a changed man."

"Just something else, Dad, I wanted to know something else about you."

"Yes Scorpius?"

"Now I know why you hated Ronald Weasley in school, but why did you hate Harry Potter and do you still hate him after all these years?"

"Why do you want to know that, son?"

"I'm just curious, that's all."

"Right, so I hated him because he turned down my friendship arrogantly in my first year like Rose Weasley did with you and since then, we've been enemies. Now I'm indifferent towards him, if you must know, Scorpius."

The other half of his year was hectic for him, he took his Father's advice seriously and found it quite helpful : "Work as hard as I can." He passed on this advice to Rose, who if she was confident about herself, still had anticipated the worse in everything, but he didn't know her mother was this way too in school, so she took after her in this, only she was way worse than her. She was always saying to him :

"What if I fail everything, Scorps?"

"No, you won't, Rosie. You've studied everything again and again and again until you memorized everything by heart."

"But what if I forget everything during my N.E.W.T.S?"

"No you won't Rosie. Listen to me and tell yourself : I will pass with 'O's in every exam."

After the N.E.W.T.S he revised so hard for, everybody in the 7th year was now making a big fuss about graduation.

"So what are you going to wear for graduation, Scorps?"

"I don't know yet, Rosie. I'm just a little nervous for it, aren't you?"

"Yes."

Sitting side by side, surprising everyone in different houses, he and his Rose went through the boring graduation speech and the award ceremony. Both Rose and he won several honours : "Best Prefects", "Best Head Boy and Girl of the year", "Honour N.E.W.T.S result students" and etc, making their parents and family proud. He heard some shocked comments about them as a couple in the crowd : "What? Them two together?" and "a Slytherin and a Gryffindor?" and further more : "A Malfoy and a Weasley together? It's the end of the world!" But it wasn't.

The Summer following his graduation, he got offered a Junior-assistant position at the prestigious Wizengamot, and she got her dream job : playing professionally for the Chudley Cannons, like her Auntie Ginny once did too. Because both he and she a stable job quickly, he proposed to her one night under the clear Moon and a starry sky :

"Rosie, will you do me the honour to be my wife?"

"Yes Scorps, I will." She said wiping away her tears of happiness and joy.

Then decided his family and her decided that his wedding would be held in autumn. There was a grand celebration for it in the Malfoy Manor. His Granny Narcissa, the Weasleys, the Potters, the Greengrasses, as well as the Grangers and even Andromeda Black Tonks and her grandson Teddy Lupin all came along to the wedding. Zabini was his best man and Nott his witness, some female Gryffindors were her bridesmaids and maids of honour.

The only one who didn't attend was his overly traditional Grandfather : Lucius Malfoy, who never accepted Rose Weasley, "a half-blood", as his granddaughter-in-law. Arthur Weasley, Rosie's granddad however, on the contrary, wasn't like Lucius Malfoy. Molly Weasley, as he planned it with Rosie, eventually successfully convinced him to accept him as his grandson-in-law, even though he's a Pure-Blood. And so for every future Christmas family get-togethers, her Granny Molly even hand-knitted for him the Weasley jumper. He of course wore it with pride.

At his wedding, he learnt his normally self-centred Aunt Daphne had some reserve about this because his chosen one wasn't a Pure-blood, but after being coaxed by his parents, she came too and was congratulating him on his marriage to the one he loved with his whole heart :

"Scorpius, congratulations, as your Aunt, and Rose, as your Aunt-in-law by marriage I am giving you both these : this pair of lockets for eternal love, one for men and the other for women. These were in my family for a very long time. Rose, I wore yours when I was a little girl."

"They're lovely! Thank you, Aunt Daphne." both exclaimed in chorus.

"And don't you two forget to give me a grandniece, or a grandnephew."

"Yes, we will."

His marriage to Rose was a very big family reunion, past grievances during the war were all forgiven at such times like these. Finally, this was how through 2 generations of hatred and feuding, the Malfoys, the Weasleys and Potters and the Greengrasses became all one family through marriage and love. And he was the first man in the Malfoy family to be married to the woman he was in love with, and not through a political or an arranged marriage, like all the Malfoy men before him.

**_Epilogue_**

Some years later, he asked his beloved wife one night:

"So Rosie, do you regret being married to me?"

"Regret it, me? Never, Scorps. I married the man I love, you silly. Why would I regret it?"

"Mummy daddy, what are you talking about?" asked his daughter Laura Weasley Granger Greengrass Malfoy innocently.

"Nothing, sweetheart. You should be in bed by now."

"But mummy, I want a bedtime story, please?"

"Not tonight, honey, this will be for some other night perhaps."

How did you find it? Bad or good? I'd like to know your opinions about it, thank you very much, readers! Don't forget to read, review, and comment eh?


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